


Mission Objective: Protect Joker

by The_Dawn_Knight



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Bat Angst, Batman - Freeform, Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Damian Wayne is Robin, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Jason Todd Has Issues, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Jason Todd is Red Hood, Joker (DCU) Has Issues, Mental Breakdown, Mental Instability, Other, Protective Bruce Wayne, Scarecrow's Fear Toxin (DCU), The Bat Babies need a Hug, Tim Drake is Red Robin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:08:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26384647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Dawn_Knight/pseuds/The_Dawn_Knight
Summary: After using a device to travel into the minds of his son's and assist them in breaking free of scarecrow fear toxin something in Batman's psyche breaks and he's no longer afraid to kill. Thus that means Joker is officially on his hit list. To prevent his slipping further away the bat boys begrudgingly set out to protect the Joker, & Jason might be the only person who can save him.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 33





	Mission Objective: Protect Joker

The sound of the chair's two back legs scrapping against the floor was an oddly familiar one, but Jason couldn't place it. Or he didn't want to place it. Joker was bound to that chair as securely as Jason could make the ropes and chains. How could this happen, he dragged the joker along not caring about the cracks in the flooring causing the chair to tip oddly, & he would shove it roughly back upright.

"Hey, c'mon… couldn't you drag me a little more gently?" Joker asked.

Jason purposely let the chair tip and drop, causing him to face plant onto the hard ground.

"Oops…" he responded dully, gruffly picking the chair back up he continued to drag him again.

He approached the room at the end of the hall just in time to hear their youngest brother saying, "Should we have left him with Jason?"

"I'll go check on them," said their oldest.

He rounded the edge and saw Nightwing had started making his way over. To check on him. Cause he was clearly so untrustworthy. The room was on the small side with a single window leading out. It was already nighttime. Damn, when had it gotten so late.

"Calm down, he's here," Hood announced when he walked in. Nightwing looked relieved, Robin clearly didn't care, and Red Robin, was buried in his computer typing away. Hood spun the chair around when he walked up close to them. "And look, against all odds, he's still breathing."

"Thanks Hood," Nightwing whispered knowing how hard it had probably been for him.

"We need to hide Joker somewhere Batman can't find him," Tim frowned searching on a small computer he always carried with him. "Keep him from killing him."

"Well here's a crazy thought, why don't we let him?" Jason asked seriously leaning against a table in the corner of the room.

"Father isn't in his right mind," Robin explained. "You didn't hear him."

"Ooooh, Father? You know none of the past Robins ever called him that. Are you actually the bat's brat?" Joker questioned, his face splitting into one of his classic wide smiles.

"Don't answer that Robin," Nightwing said and turning to Hood he added. "You know this isn't what Batman would want, with him not thinking clearly… it's not going to stop with just the Joker."

"Yeah, I get that," he answered. "But hypothetically speaking… The world _would_ be a better place."

The Joker reached out one of his feet tapping Damian's shoe to get his attention, "Hey, have I tortured you before?"

Damain narrowed his eyes.

"See look at that scowl, you have to be the bat's brat. That's exactly how batman would glare at me. How interesting."

"Stop talking before I break your jaw," Hood snapped.

"Problem is, every place I know of Batman, would think of…" Red Robin frowned ignoring the whole conversation. "And frankly, he's good enough he would guess anywhere that I might come up with."

"Alright," Nightwing frowned. "Where would he least expect?"

"You all turned off your trackers right?" Red Robin asked.

The other three nodded in response.

"You know I had play dates with the other three at one point or another," Joker explained grinning. "C'mon our torture sessions are like a Robin initiation at this point."

He frowned when no one responded.

"We could take him near the league compound," Robin suggested. "I've been all over those mountains, there's a thousand places to hide him."

"Taking him somewhere that doesn't have a name would probably be best," Nightwing agreed.

"Do you guys really want this freak anywhere even somewhat close to the pit?" Hood growled, he folded his arms in frustration.

"So let's rectify this," the Joker continued a little louder to get their attention. "It'll be fun! I'm sure there is probably an empty shed around here… Maybe Hood could supply the crowbar."

Red Robin closed his computer handing it to Damian at the same time Nightwing and Hood moved in close to the Joker. Three fists collided with the clown's face sending him flying back. Damian was the only one who hadn't moved but he let out a soft laugh when the Joker's chair spun around and he fell backward onto the floor, coughing from pain and blood that filled his mouth.

"You all seem really protective over him; he must be Batman's brat huh? So… who did he sleep with to produce that? C'mon, you can tell me. I'm good at keeping secrets…"

No one bothered to pick him up, but they moved to the opposite corner of the small room in order to continue their talk. Tim specifically positioned Damian furthest away from where Joker laid on the floor for their discussion.

"How about somewhere completely new?" Hood suggested. "We could find a Hotel to keep him in."

"Probably not the best idea to have him in the same location as a lot of civilians," Red Robin pointed out thinking about the little Christmas joy ride the Joker once took him on.

"Fine, let's just take him to the nearest lake and push him in," Hood recommended knowing the answer already but they were running out of time.

"The goal is to _not_ kill him," Red Robin pointed out yet again.

"We wouldn't kill him, the _water_ would kill him."

"I agreed with hood," Robin said speaking up.

"You would," Red Robin sighed.

"Guys, we're running out of time," Nightwing pointed out. "Whatever we do, we need to do it soon…"

"Their should be enough crap in this old warehouse, we could pull together three dummies. We'll make them all in Joker's size. Without being too close, Batman won't be able to tell which one of us has the real one until he confronts us. We'll all take off in different directions, and bring our fake Jokers to the place we think is the safest. Protect the dummies like you would if it was the real thing, and it should buy the person who has the real one enough time to find him somewhere safe. We're not even going to tell each other where we've taken our decoys or the real thing in case Batman interrogates us."

"Do you think he will?" Nightwing questioned.

Red Robin frowned. "The state he's in, I wouldn't rule out the fact he might go so far as to hurt one of us."

"Then who is going to take the real one?" Robin asked.

"The person he would least expect," Red Robin explained, and they all realized who it was at the same moment and turned in Hood's direction.

"Really?" Hood folded his arms.

"Look, we need to know you're here for this. If you don't think you can do it—"

"I really wish everyone would stop doubting me," he snapped.

Nightwing put a hand on his shoulder looking concerned. "We don't doubt you, but in the same way Batman's mind set isn't right at the moment… we just want to make sure yours is…"

"I'm fine," he snapped defiantly.

"Your fine now, will you still be fine in ten minutes, ten hours? Ten days? We don't know how long this might go on for. Until Batman's mind is put right again…"

"I'll keep the bastard alive."

"But are you—" Red Robin started questioning.

"Hey, Hood says he's fine. Then he's fine. I trust him."

The rest of them fell silent.

If Nightwing trusted him. That was all the other two needed to hear to not question it anymore. At least not now.

"Let's start making those dummies. Batman could be here any minute," Nightwing ordered.

"We should strip him," Hood pointed out.

"Why?" Red Robin asked.

"We don't have four blindingly purple suits. Nightwing should take a dummy dressed in his proper clothes. It'll throw him off even more."

"Good thinking," Nightwing agreed to handle that unpleasant task and the other three left the room rushing about the warehouse to gather anything that could help them make dummies.

This was the scarecrows fault. It was all his fault. About a month back they had been fighting him. All four of them had got blasted with his fear toxin. Jason didn't remember anything after that except the dream like world he had entered, the one that found him back in that warehouse. His hands handcuffed behind his back. Joker with that laugh… and that damn crowbar… It was so real, but their was a part of him that knew it wasn't. However, the longer he was in the dream the more he believed he was actually there. Until their came a point where his mind could no longer differentiate reality from that fake existence. It was just like he was a kid again, in pain, unable to breathe, scared. The years that had passed after that incident faded from his mind and that warehouse became his present. Even his past had started fading, and now was all he had. That damn laugh… the sound of metal colliding with his skull. He put a hand to his own forehead his head aching. It hurt so badly…

Jason punched one of the iron pillars, denting it. _Stop thinking about it_ , he scolded himself letting the pain in his fist remind him that he was here, and his current mission was… Protect the Joker.

 _Fuck_ …

"You sure you're alright?" Jason turned upon hearing the voice to see Damian behind him with a flashlight aimed at him.

"I'm fine."

"That pillar would say otherwise."

"Just stop kid," he snapped and he glanced at the clothes in his arm. "What did you find?"

Damian was holding a bunch of clothes, and he mentioned they were worker uniforms he found in the basement.

"Good, that'll work," Jason sighed.

"Maybe the fear toxin didn't get completely out of your system," Damian suggested.

"I'm fine," he looked down at his hand which was bleeding from where he had punched the iron.

"Alfred did say it was a strand he hadn't analyzed before. Maybe it has lasting effects."

"Damn it! I said I'm fine!" Jason nearly yelled that.

"I'm not bringing this up to upset you," Damian said seriously. "In the league when a soldier wasn't fit to fight he was… taken off the team."

Taken off the team was a polite way of saying they were killed. But Damian knew it wasn't going to help to say that part. "This insured they wouldn't slow the others down. If you're not fit for battle then you should—"

Jason reached out with his bleeding hand grabbing Damian by the cowl he pulled him up close to his face. Damian didn't flinch staring back at him. "I said I'm fine, quit making me repeat myself!"

"If you say so…" he answered and Jason shoved him away.

"Let's hurry up and take these back," Jason sighed. "We have to make those decoys now, and that's going to take time too. I'm sure Batman's not far from our trail by now anyway."

They headed back to the room in silence. Everyone offering up what they could to contribute to constructing the decoys. With all the stuff that had been found, they had three Joker sized dummies, one of which wore Joker's purple suit, and the Joker himself was placed in one of the spare worker uniforms before being tied up again.

"Keep your trackers off," Tim warned. "Only turn yours on if Batman has discovered that your decoy isn't the real thing. That'll serve as our warning to one another that's he's getting closer to the rest of you."

"Did you have to make them so heavy?" Damian asked annoyed when he lifted his.

"If it gets moved around, I wanted to make sure it mimicked a real body," Tim pointed out.

"Fair enough." Damian hoisted it over his shoulder.

"Alright let's move everyone," Nightwing demanded. "I'm willing to bet Batman is probably already here. So get in your vehicles and head out. You all know what direction you're heading in. If Batman finds you, turn your trackers on like Red Robin said."

"Yeah yeah, we all know the plan," Hood snapped picking up the real Joker he threw him over his shoulder. He was gagged so he couldn't be annoying anymore. Nightwing walked over to the door opening it a crack and peaking out. With a hand signal he had them move out.

It was the same signal that started the chaos a month ago, sending them into the fight that cause all of this.

* * *

One month prior

* * *

The Batmobile pulled up and Alfred walked down the steps ready to receive him. The door opened and Batman stepped out.

"Any improvements?"

"Afraid not Sir," he answered.

"I had no luck finding the Scarecrow either," Bruce took off his mask walking over to where Dick, Jason, Tim and Damian were lying on beds. They had been given a paralytic agent to ensure they didn't accidentally harm themselves or someone else. But that didn't mean they still weren't suffering from the delusions. His antidote hadn't worked like it used to which meant scarecrow had a new toxin.

"Any luck on an antidote."

"Not yet," Alfred admitted. Both he and Bruce had been working day and night on it but it had so far proven fruitless.

"I'll go in," Bruce said looking down at the pained expressions of his children's face, lying there… Helpless.

"Master Bruce," Alfred said softly. "Going into other people's minds, we don't know what sort of damage that could deal to your own psyche. We should keep working on the antidote."

"It's been four days already Alfred, how long do you expect me to leave them like this?" he asked going to a computer by each one in turn that displayed their vitals.

"Sir…" Alfred said softly.

"We know overcoming the fear is a possible cure, if they could do that on their own, they would have done it by now."

"Yes, Sir. But there is a good chance that we'll just end up with 5 people needing treatment instead of four…" he explained softly.

Bruce walked over picking up a device that resembled a VR helmet examining it. "Then you keep working on that."

"Master Bruce… I really think we can figure out the antidote. Just another day or two."

"When you suggested we make the cure instead of doing this, I said we could take three days," Bruce reminded him. "Your plan got four. I'm not waiting anymore. It's time for my plan."

Alfred sighed, "I'll get the machine started."

Going into someone else's subconscious was nothing to sneeze at. The slightest thing could cause someone to completely lose it. Actions taken in another's mind could mend psychological injuries, but it could also cause irreparable damage. He did not make this decision lightly. But at the same time, staying this long in a fear induced delusion could also cause irreparable damage. If their was a chance… He had to. They were his sons. All four of them, and he could not lose them…


End file.
